Too Soon
by Klutzygirl33
Summary: Mary is terrified there's something wrong and comes to a decision about keeping the baby. Set post "Something Borrowed, Something Blew Up." Mary/Marshall


**Disclaimer**: I don't own In Plain Sight and never will. No copyright infringement intended.

* * *

><p>As she was loaded into the ambulance, a terrified Mary Shannon cried out for both Marshall and her mom. They both decided to follow her in, while Mark was going to drive to the hospital.<p>

"Hey, look at me, Mare. Calm down. You're going to be just fine, Baby. Okay? I'll make sure of it." Marshall leaned over and kissed her forehead.

Abby didn't miss the "Baby" slip. She had been thinking of breaking up with Marshall for a while now. He kept referring to Mary's baby as his, despite the fact that Mark was around. Plus, earlier today, Marshall had protected Mary instead of her. It was too much, so this had just solidified her thoughts. Marshall was always going to choose Mary over her, and she didn't want to accept that.

"This hurts." Mary whimpered. She hated feeling this way, but she was terrified. What if something had happened to the baby today and she hadn't realized it?

Marshall hated seeing Mary this vulnerable. He grabbed her free hand – Jinx had the other – and squeezed it. "I know it does, but both of you will be fine. Remember me telling you that women give birth every day at thirty-two weeks?" He kissed her forehead again.

It seemed like it took the ambulance forever to get to the hospital, but they arrived rather quickly. As they were rushing Mary into the emergency room, her water broke. She was treated rather quickly, getting an ultrasound to check on the baby.

"The baby appears to not be in distress, but I'll keep monitoring you just in case we need to do an emergency C-section," the doctor informed Mary. Marshall and Jinx let out relieved sighs, but Mary was still worried that something was wrong. She couldn't let herself relax.

Marshall headed out into the waiting room to update Mark, Abigail, Delia, and Stan. "No emergency C-section right now, but that could change at any moment. Mary and the baby are both being monitored."

"Marshall, can I talk to you?" Abby just wanted to get the break-up over with and move on with her life. Marshall could be with Mary then.

Marshall sighed, not really surprised. He had been expecting this all day, ever since Abby had confronted him about protecting Mary instead of her. "Sure." They went off into an empty room since he didn't want to go too far away from Mary, despite the fact that Jinx was with her.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat this. You and I both know you love her more than you loved me. And it's okay. Really. Go off and raise her baby together. I'm fine. Don't worry about it. And I hope everything goes well. Tell Mary congratulations." Abby kissed him and then left Marshall standing there.

It hurt a little, but not as much as he had been expecting. Marshall bolted back to Mary's room and sat down in the uncomfortable hospital chair. "She's refusing an epidural," Jinx informed him.

"I don't want it. Okay? I can deal with this pain." Mary had calmed down a little, but her blood pressure was a little high.

"Are you sure?" Marshall didn't want her to be in any unnecessary pain if she didn't have to be.

"I'm sure." Mary closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but it took her over half an hour to do so. Her mind was racing, plus the contractions coming every ten minutes made things worse.

Two hours later, she woke up to sharp pain lancing through her abdomen. The contractions were coming closer together and getting worse. Half an hour later, the doctor ordered an emergency C-section since Mary's blood pressure had risen.

"Can Marshall come in with me? And my mom?" Mary would regret being this vulnerable later, but at this point, she didn't care.

"Of course." The nurse helped Marshall and Jinx get ready and within a few minutes, they were heading to the OR. The baby was born at 10:56PM and then rushed to the NICU to be checked over.

"You have a little girl, Mare. She's tiny, but beautiful."

"I'm so proud of you. You did good." Jinx smiled at her daughter.

After being stitched up, Mary was sent to recovery and Marshall returned to the waiting room to tell everyone what he knew. He then quickly returned to Mary's side, while Mark and Stan went up to the NICU to check on the baby.

"I want to know if my baby's okay," Mary demanded. She was a little out of it, but otherwise fine. Her blood pressure had gone down a little, but was still high.

"Mark and Stan are with her for now. They'd tell us if anything was wrong."

"I haven't been able to get a hold of Brandi. She'd want to be here." Jinx anxiously bit her lip. She was worried about both of her daughters and wasn't sure what to do.

"She'll come back eventually. We need to keep our focus on Mary and Baby Shannon right now." Marshall was worried about Brandi himself, but honestly didn't care about his partner's sister at the moment. Mary and the baby were his priority.

Mary's doctor came in to check in on her around 6:00AM the next morning. Stan had visited once, to give an update on the baby – She was on oxygen in the NICU, but was otherwise healthy. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I had surgery last night. Now can I please get some concrete information on the baby?" Mary was furious that she hadn't been told much immediately after the baby was born.

"Sorry. She's three pounds, five ounces, and is eighteen and a half inches long. The baby is currently on oxygen, which is normal. She'll be in the NICU until she's deemed healthy enough to go home. Would you like to see her?"

"Yes, I would like to see her! Are you an idiot?" Mary wished she had her normal doctor taking care of her instead of this clearly incompetent emergency room doctor.

Marshall wheeled Mary up to the NICU in a wheelchair – which she complained about the entire time, of course. They were then led to the baby by a nurse. "She's a fighter already."

"She's so tiny. Are we sure she's okay?" Mary was already feeling guilty about her activities yesterday. Was she the reason that the baby had been born this early?

"Yes, she's fine. You can talk to her in the incubator. Have you come up with a name yet?"

"No." Up until last night, Mary had been unsure if she was even going to keep the baby. But she had decided this morning that she wasn't going to give her daughter up for adoption. For some reason, she wanted to keep her. She knew she had Mark, Marshall, and her mother to help. She was terrified of raising a baby, but Mary was determined to do it."

"Well, you don't have to come up with one immediately. Would you like to hold her?"

"Can I?"

"Of course!" The nurse carefully took the baby out of the incubator and gently handed her to Mary, who stared at her daughter.

"Wow. I can't believe I made this." Mary was scared she'd drop her or something. Plus, she was now worrying about going home. Since she had thought she was going to give the baby up for adoption, she hadn't started a nursery or anything. She voiced her thoughts to Marshall. After he held the baby for a few minutes and helped Mary back to her room, he called Jinx and Mark about the issue. They decided to help Mary out before she came home from the hospital.

Two days later, Mary still hadn't come up with a name. It was driving her crazy. "So what do you want to name her? She can't remain nameless forever." Marshall flipped through the baby name book again.

"I told you that I don't want anything too girly, but I also don't want a unisex name."

"Which makes life more difficult for us." Marshall ducked when Mary threw her empty Jell-O cup at him.

"So, where's Abby? I haven't seen her since my sister's disaster of a wedding."

"We broke up."

"Oh." Mary didn't know what to say to that. What could she say?

Marshall sighed and decided it was now or never. "It's because I'm in love with you and she knows it. She didn't want to compete with you. This is our daughter, Mare. I told you that at the beginning. And that holds true whether Mark's involved or not."

"I might feel the same way about you."

"Might?"

"Okay, I do. But don't expect me to say it yet. I have to work my way up to that. Wait, I think I found the name."

"What is it?" Marshall leaned over and kissed Mary before she could answer, and that lasted for a few seconds.

Mary smiled when they pulled apart. "You know how I decided to just point my finger at a random name and hope for the best?"

"Fondly. What'd you point your finger at?"

She rolled her eyes. "How do you feel about the name Tessa? We can call her Tess."

Marshall tested the name out. "Tessa Shannon. Tess Shannon. I like it. Now we need a middle name."

Mary groaned. "Helen? Helene? Helena? The name keeps bothering me." It had come up in conversation earlier, but she and Marshall had both vetoed that idea. She didn't look like a Helen to them.

"Tessa Helen? Tessa Helene? Tessa Helena doesn't sound that great together."

"So now we have to choose between Helen and Helene. A one letter difference." Mary suddenly yawned.

"You go to sleep. You need your rest. I'll go check on our little girl, who I think will be happy she's no longer Baby Girl Shannon."

Mary laughed, but then winced. Her C-Section incision hurt when she was in certain positions. "Kiss her for me?"

"Of course." Marshall headed up to the NICU again, but not before calling Jinx and Mark. They had visited a few times, but were mostly focused on the nursery. Luckily, there had been some progress made.

"So, hi there Miss Tessa. That's your name. Mommy and I finally picked one out. Now, you're going to have two daddies, which will be confusing, but don't you worry about that. We all love you very, very much."

The baby cooed and Marshall melted. He couldn't help it. "You're Tessa Helen, aren't you? Well, it fits at any rate."

When Mary was discharged from the hospital a day later, she had a hard time leaving Tess. "Listen, kid, I'm not going to be gone long. I'll be going stir crazy stuck in that house, so you'll be seeing a lot of me. Both your daddies and your grandma will be by too." She found it odd that her mother and Mark hadn't been by often, but decided she would figure it out when she got home.

And she did – Marshall, Mark, and Jinx surprised her with the now completed nursery. "We figured it'd be one less thing for you to worry about." Jinx was glad that she had been able to do this for Mary. She wanted to ease her daughter's worries a little bit.

"Thanks." And Mary began crying unexpectedly, which wasn't unusual. The post-partum hormones had kicked in shortly after she had given birth to Tess, and the crying had occurred a few times.

Marshall leaned in and hugged her, and the crying stopped almost immediately. Mary made them turn around while she wiped the tears away and pretended nothing happened.

"I decided to lease a two bedroom apartment. I'll be out of your hair in a few days." Mark had conceded that Marshall was the baby's dad, but that didn't mean he couldn't also be Tessa's father.

"Oh, that's great." Mary hated that Mark was always going to be around, but she didn't mind it so much. At least he (and Jinx) would be able to help when she and Marshall were busy doing their jobs.

Tess would be home from the hospital as soon as she gained a little weight and was off the oxygen, and then reality was going to smack Mary Shannon in the face.

But that was okay. She could raise her daughter, especially with help from Marshall, Mark, and Jinx. They all loved Tessa. And that was the important thing.


End file.
